The present invention relates to battery units that are detachably connectable to a portable electronic apparatus such as a notebook personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d), as well as the portable electronic apparatus that are mounted with the battery unit.
Portable electronic apparatuses, typified by notebook PCs, portable computers, portable information terminals, portable information processors, portable terminals, etc., have been required to reduce its size and weight, while demanded to have more functions. The notebook PCs are designed to include a system achieving its functions in an A4-sized, B5-sized, or other portable-sized housing, and can, as necessary, be detachably mounted with an expansion unit for changing and extending its capabilities. The expansion units are mounted in a user-detachable/attachable manner in a storage portion of the notebook PC, which is called expansion bay, multi-purpose bay, multi-bay, selectable bay, or the like. The expansion units have various structures in accordance with its functions to be added, as seen in a CD-ROM disk drive, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, a power supply, an image pick-up device camera unit, a PC card slot, a printer, a scanner, and a network device, etc.
The various expansion units like these are packaged in a housing of a usually common size, and an expansion unit having a necessary function is configured to be attachable to the computer body by inserting it from the housing into the computer body through the side or bottom of the keyboard. Any other necessary function becomes available in the computer by substituting the currently used unit with another one.
In addition to such an expansion unit, a battery unit having a built-in battery is detachably connectable to a notebook PC. The battery unit may usually be attached to and detached from a keyboard body of the notebook PC through its rear or side surface, and includes a battery of increased capacity to assure a longer operation where an external power supply is not available.
FIGS. 11 and 12 show an example of a conventional battery unit. This conventional battery unit 100 has an approximately rectangular parallelepiped housing 101, in which a battery (not shown) is arranged. The battery unit 100 includes a connector 102 at one sidewall for supplying power to the computer inside, and also a partly recessed area 103 at the other sidewall. The connector 102 has a structure of two or more narrow belt-shaped electrodes arranged along the sidewall, and each electrode is partitioned with a synthetic resin material that constitutes the housing 101. The notebook PC has display and keyboard bodies that are openable through a hinge mechanism, and the battery unit is detachably attached to the bottom of the keyboard body, serves as a power supply for portable use without an external power supply.
The portable electronic information terminals including notebook PCs have been increasingly demanded to serve as a multifunctional unit, and thus indispensably require detachable expansion units that are exchangeable according to required functions such as so-called selectable bays to realize those demanded functions. This expansion unit occupies a certain space when loaded into the keyboard body of the computer. As discussed, the conventional portable electronic information terminal requires the battery unit to be loaded while loading the expansion unit, by arranging them at the bottom of the keyboard body.
The battery unit is further demanded to include a battery having larger capacity as well as higher performance to serve as a long-term power supply battery. Although the increased battery capacity requires an increased battery space, the battery space is restricted by the computer keyboard body size, such as A4, B5 and the like, and the battery space has been hardly expanded and secured particularly at the area adjacent to the expansion unit.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing technical issues, it is an exemplified object of the present invention to provide a novel and useful battery unit that is loadable into a keyboard body of a notebook PC, etc., next to an expansion unit, and provides an efficient space arrangement. It is another exemplified object of the present invention to provide a portable electronic apparatus into which the above battery unit is loaded.
In order to achieve the above objects, a battery unit according to the present invention is attachable to an electronic apparatus that is detachably mounted with an expansion unit that realizes a predetermined function when connected to the electronic apparatus. The battery unit comprises a battery, and a housing that accommodates the battery, and partially overlaps the expansion unit in a thickness direction of the housing. This overlap would efficiently maximize the space in the electronic apparatus.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the battery unit further comprises a connector at a side surface thereof connectable with the electronic apparatus. The housing includes a battery-unit extending portion that may overlap the expansion unit in the expansion unit in the thickness direction of the housing, and said battery unit further comprises a circuit board accommodated in the battery-unit extending portion. The battery-unit extending portion has a bent shape in the housing, and the battery unit further comprises a partition between the circuit board and the battery in the housing.
The electronic apparatus according to the present invention comprises a main housing, an expansion unit that is detachably attached to the main housing, and realizes a predetermined function when the expansion unit is attached to the main housing, and a battery unit attachable to the main housing, the battery unit serving as a power supply and partially overlapping the expansion unit in a thickness direction of the battery unit. This overlap would efficiently maximize the space in the electronic apparatus.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the expansion unit includes a thinner portion whereas the battery unit includes a battery-unit extending portion, and wherein the battery-unit extending portion and the thinner portion overlap each other and maintain a continuous surface with said main body. The battery unit extends longer than the expansion unit in a moving direction of the expansion unit in which the expansion unit is movable to be attached to and detached from the main housing, and wherein the battery unit includes a connector that is connectable to the electronic apparatus and outside the battery-unit extending portion. The expansion unit and the battery unit are made so stepwise to partially overlap each other. The expansion unit and the battery unit overlap each other by a surface contact in the electronic apparatus. The thinner portion includes a thin oblique surface that is obliquely provided relative to in a moving direction of the expansion unit in which the expansion unit is movable to be attached to and detached from the main housing, and wherein the battery-unit extending portion includes a battery oblique surface that is obliquely provided relative to the moving direction to engage the thin oblique surface of the thinner portion. The expansion unit is detachably attached to the main body through a side of the main body, and the battery unit is detachably attached to the main body through a bottom of the main body.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following description of the embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings.